


Room For All

by Telaryn



Category: Leverage
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic, Established Relationship, Multi, OT3, Protective Alec Hardison, Secret Children, Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 11:41:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9438611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Telaryn/pseuds/Telaryn
Summary: During one of his routine checks of their former clients, Hardison uncovers a secret Aimee Martin has been keeping - a secret that could potentially end his and Parker's relationship with Eliot just as things are getting really good.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [honorat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/honorat/gifts).



> From Prompt #1 - Parker and Hardison play matchmaker for Eliot and Aimee.
> 
> ...I'm glad you were okay with this taking a non-traditional route. Thank you for joining us again!

Sunday afternoon wasn’t a typical time for visitors – especially ones in unmarked black vans. Curiosity piqued, Aimee Martin slid off the filly she’d been working and headed for the paddock gate. The sound of the driver’s side door opening and closing reached her ears, and by the time she had her hand on the gate itself, their visitor stepped into her line of sight; his expression as grim as anything she’d ever seen.

Alec Hardison.

 _Shit._  
**************************  
Coming up with a plausible lie to explain him being away from Portland for a few days had been surprisingly easy. Parker hadn’t liked the idea of him going anywhere without her, but ultimately she’d understood, and it wasn’t as if either she or Eliot had the skills to track his whereabouts if it did occur to one or both of them that he might have been somewhat less than forthcoming with the truth.

“You had no right!” He’d seen Aimee angry before. Her history with Eliot kind of made it her default state when anything connected to him came up. “That information was private, Hardison!”

It really was adorable how she could make that statement with a legitimately straight face. “And if we were talking about you sleeping with the mailman or cheating on your taxes, I promise you I wouldn’t be here,” he assured her. “We’re talking about a child, Aimee. A child Eliot doesn’t know about!”

“You’re so sure he’s the father?”

Every so often Hardison was overwhelmed by how much he’d absorbed from Sophie over the years. He had to imagine that the man he’d been wouldn’t have immediately seen all of the evidence that Aimee was lying. The man he was now catalogued half a dozen sure-fire tells in a blink of an eye. “I can do the math,” he said finally. “And I’m as sure as I’ve ever been that if we get a paternity test done, you already know what it’s going to say.”

Fear was replaced entirely by rage, as Aimee was transformed in front of his eyes into a woman fully capable of going toe to toe with anyone to protect her own – even Eliot Spencer. “You don’t want to go there with me, Hardison. Threatening me isn’t a smart play under any circumstances.”

The others often joked about how he overplayed a grift, but Hardison did understand people; sometimes better than he wanted to, and he understood immediately that in his zeal to stand up for Eliot, he’d overstepped himself. “I’m not looking to threaten you, mama, but you have to know that lying to him’s not right. He deserves to know he has a kid.”

Almost as if on cue, the sound of running footsteps reached the hacker’s ears. He heard Aimee’s sharp intake of breath, saw her entire body tense, as a small child with her mother’s fiery red hair ran into the room. “Mama, I finished cleaning Snowball’s tack. Grandpa says you have to say I did a good job…please come look!” Grabbing her mother’s hand, the girl tugged enthusiastically. “Come on!”

Looking across at Hardison, Aimee slowly turned the girl so that she could see him. “Joanna Beth, we have a visitor. This is Mr. Hardison.”  
*******************************  
“You’re thinking very loudly.” Tightening his arms around her, Eliot kissed the tangle of Parker’s blond hair. “He’s going to call, and he’s going to tell us what’s going on.”

The thief turned in his embrace, an uncharacteristically worried expression on her face as she looked up at him. “Or you’ll beat him up?”

Laughing softly, Eliot urged her up until he could kiss her properly. Parker relaxed into him, moaning softly as she kissed him back. “I’m not going to beat anybody up,” he murmured as their lips parted. “Hardison doesn’t keep secrets. Not from us. You just need to be patient.”

In his own mind, Eliot was half-convinced Hardison was just looking for some alone time. It had been one of the most difficult things for each of them to carve out since formalizing their unusual relationship. “He said he’d be back later today,” he reminded Parker. The thief had pushed their heavy covers aside, and was straddling his hips – a predatory look in her eyes as she listened to him.

Their lovemaking was slow and intense. Parker was an athletic lover who preferred to control the pace of their sexual encounters – and when she slowed things down, Hardison and Eliot agreed that the intensity was almost more than either of them could tolerate.

Almost.

When they were finally finished with each other, Parker slept while Eliot grabbed a shower and pulled on some clothes. He was coming to appreciate the down time the three of them had between jobs – the time when they fell into the comfortable day to day flow that had become their routine.

There had been a freedom to finally admitting to Nate and Sophie that he’d lost his heart to hacker and thief; that his life going forward would never be what the rest of the world saw as ‘normal’. Admitting it to them had also been a way to give himself permission to commit fully to the relationship, instead of excusing it as a temporary diversion.

He was making his way downstairs to the pub to check on things, when his phone chimed for attention. _Need you downstairs. Important._ It was from Hardison. His calm effectively shattered, Eliot took the balance of the stairs two at a time.  
*********************************  
The restaurant was nice; upscale without being pretentious. Aimee took in the main dining room, and decided that she could see Eliot settling in a place like this. The Eliot who had helped save her family’s livelihood, at any rate. The man he’d been when he’d belonged to her would have sooner died than connected himself to something called a “brew pub”.

He also never would have called a place like Portland home.

“He’s going to hate me,” she said, once Hardison had settled her at a table and brought her a beer.

The hacker took the seat opposite hers. “You going to try and tell me he wouldn’t have cause?”

Aimee winced from the truth of that. It had all seemed so simple back when she’d first found herself pregnant. Forgiving Eliot had been hard, but she’d been happier without the weight of resenting him on her soul. That didn’t mean she was ready to try and understand the man he’d become, or see if that person had any interest in understanding the woman she’d become.

She didn’t realize how deep she’d sunk into her own thoughts and fears until Hardison reached across the table to take her hand. “He’s going to be angry – you’ve got to expect that. Just make him see that you’re here to make it right. That’s what’s going to count, in the end.”

Aimee looked up to answer him, but her throat tightened around the words. Eliot had come through a door to the back of the building – eyes scanning the room. Confusion immediately replaced surprise as he registered her presence, then he was heading towards them.

“Hey you,” she said, coming to her feet in an unsteady rush.

“Hey yourself,” he said, reaching them and leaning over to pull her into a quick embrace. “What’re you doing here?” He looked at Hardison, who had also gotten to his feet. “Is this why you disappeared so quickly?” His voice took on an edge.

For his part, Hardison was uncharacteristically serious as he faced down Eliot. “Aimee and you’ve got something to talk about. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what I’d found, but I wanted to make sure I was right before I kicked over this particular ant-hill.” Cupping his hand at the back of Eliot’s neck, he pulled the hitter in for a quick kiss. “Listen to what the woman has to say. Parker and I’ll be in the back.”

Aimee had been startled by the kiss between the two men, but noted quickly that Eliot wasn’t. _Well,_ she thought, figuring out the subtext behind Hardison’s passionate defense of his ‘friend’ at last. _This is going to be awkward._  
********************************************  
Parker’s joy at having Hardison back home was almost immediately doused by the knowledge of what he’d brought with him. “Why would you do that?” Eyes widening as she realized what she’d said, Parker scowled. “No – I don’t mean that. I know why you did it. I mean, why didn’t you tell us what you’d found? I mean, first?”

Hardison had called up the security feed to the dining room, and was watching the interplay between Aimee and Eliot. The hitter had shown impressive restraint on hearing the news he was a father; he’d put some distance between himself and Aimee, but while his hand was clenched in a fist against his denim-clad thigh, there was almost no sign of the turmoil Hardison suspected he was feeling.

“I couldn’t risk being wrong,” he said, tearing his attention away from the feed to meet her eyes. “Not about something as big as this. I had to be sure.”

The place just under Parker’s sternum that always ached when things were really bad began to throb. “We’re going to let him go, aren’t we?” she asked, hating how small and pathetic her voice sounded. “We have to.”

Strong arms pulled her into a tight embrace. Parker fisted her hands in Hardison’s shirt, willing herself not to cry. “That’s got to be Eliot’s choice, babe,” she felt him say; his breath warm and comforting against her skin. “But yeah – if he decides he’s got to be with Aimee to get to know his child, we gotta respect that.”

In her head, Parker understood that what Hardison was saying was right – it was the right thing to do, the thing she always tried to do whenever possible these days.

Her heart, on the other hand. Her heart was crying that she needed to go out to the dining room, to make sure that Aimee understood what she was coming in the middle of. If Eliot left, she and Hardison would still have each other, but it wouldn’t be right anymore. They wouldn’t be complete - _not like we are now._

Hardison let her stay where she was until she was ready to move, and Parker took full advantage of it. Finally though, the questions she didn’t want to ask crowded into her brain and made it impossible for her to stay still and keep stealing what comfort she could. “What’s her name?”

“Aimee called her Joanna Beth, but she likes being called Jo Jo.”

Parker considered the information. “She’s right. Joanna Beth isn’t a fun name like Jo Jo.”

“It also isn’t the name of a pony.”

Both hacker and thief turned to find Eliot standing in the doorway – his expression so full of emotion Parker didn’t know if she could begin to understand what he was feeling. “Jo Jo was Aimee’s first pony. Willy bought it for her when she was six.”

Hardison got to his feet and stepped around Parker. “Man, I’m sorry I did it this way, but I didn’t want to tell you what I’d found until I was sure, and then…” Whatever he was about to say was lost forever as Eliot swiftly closed the distance between them and kissed him.

Parker began crying in earnest as she watched her boys. “I get it,” Eliot said, cupping Hardison’s face between his palms and forcing eye contact. “You were trying to protect me. I get it. I’m not mad at you.”

He waited until Hardison acknowledged his words with a nod, then stepped back and reached for Parker. “And you.” She allowed herself to be drawn into his embrace. “You know this doesn’t change how I feel about you guys, right?”

She wanted to pull herself together, to show him that she understood what he was trying to say even if she thought he was being naïve, but the tears wouldn’t stop. “It has to,” she told him, pulling back far enough for them to be able to see each other. “Kids come first. They have to.”

“Parker,” he said gently, “I’m not saying this isn’t complicated. Aimee and I have a lot we’ve got to work through, and that includes figuring out the best way for me to start being there for my daughter. My _life_ is never going to be there, though, no matter what we decide. That ship sailed a long time ago.”

He rested his forehead against hers. “My life is here. With you guys. Please tell me you understand that.”

She didn’t…not entirely. But as Hardison joined them and they melted into sort of a group hug, Parker figured that maybe she didn’t have to.

_Not yet, at any rate._


End file.
